By Carter Melrose
After taking another plane ride to the West, the Hawkeye track and field team will participate in the Jim Click Shootout in Tucson, Arizona. The meet will span from today through Saturday and will mark the second time in that number of weeks the team has traveled 1,000-plus miles.
“It’s about what we are doing during this week,” Director of Track and Field Joey Woody said. “As long as we don’t pound them too much, they are pretty fresh.”
Leading up to last weekend’s meet, the team was thrust into a less than favorable situation by arriving at their hotel a bit later than anticipated — 2 a.m.
“The flight got delayed, we were supposed to get there closer to 11,” Woody said. “Our kids still performed pretty well on Friday.”
In these early meets, national running times are on the minds of all involved.
“We just want to hit big performances; we are still trying to get people to hit qualifying standards for the first round of the national meet,” Woody said.
One of the racers in midseason form is sophomore Mar’Yea Harris, who ran well in last weekend’s Florida Relays. He will try to continue his high-caliber pace during the Click meet.
“Mar’yea running a 45.7 was really impressive [at the Florida Relays],” Woody said.
Harris is sitting on top of the Big Ten 400-meter mountain with that 45.7 performance.
Last weekend’s relay races were to get the relay teams going — this weekend will focus on some individual stars such as freshman Collin Hofacker.
He notched personal bests in both 200 meters and 400 meters last weekend in Florida, and this weekend he will try to do the same. Hofacker said that in every meet, he wants to earn a new personal best. He has been able to continue this trend through two meets; this third one will test the boundaries of the freshman racer.
Another must-watch athlete this weekend is another freshman, Nathan Mylenek. He runs the 3,000-meter steeplechase and runs it well. He has broken into the top 10 in Iowa track history in the event, while also injecting himself into the top 20 in the nation.
The story of last weekend for the Hawkeye women’s team was freshman Laulauga Tausaga, a sensation in her own right. Being able to step into a D-1 organization and break the women’s discus record in the first month of her outdoor career is rather impressive. The throw also grabbed her the sixth-best distance in the nation. She looks as though she is poised to break many Hawkeye records, and she has a good chance to do so this weekend.
The distance-running unit for Iowa will get the weekend off from competition as they prepare for the Mt. Sac Relays the weekend of April 13-15. Woody thought it was important for the group to have some time away from competition.
“We are going to give our distance runners some rest this weekend and get them ready for Mt. Sac next week,” he said.